ABOUT MACK DIAMOND

Photo by Austin Wondolowski

The third most famous export from Hoboken, New Jersey (after Frank Sinatra and raw sewage), Mack Diamond began his career as a child star, singing on street corners with his two older brothers, Shlomo and Moishe. A chance encounter outside the Clam Broth House with the booking agent Hymie Lefkowitz led to seven fairly successful seasons at Grossinger’s (yes, the Grossinger’s) in the Catskills. “3 Jews 3”, as the boys were known, opened for the likes of Steve & Edie Abramowitz, Sidney Bishop (Joey’s 2nd cousin), and the one-woman Israeli Sha Na Na tribute act, Shoshana. After Moishe (that bum) left the trio to play Mendel the Rabbi’s son in the third national tour of Fiddler on the Roof, Mack & Shlomo tried to continue as “2 Jews 2”, but the magic was gone and the boys went their separate ways. This led to a decade of depression and alcoholism, which Mack is pretty sure he spent in Vegas (where else?). There, he spent eight years performing his one-man show, A Yiddishe Mackie, for the 3AM seating at the 24-hour buffet at the Imperial Palace (yes, the Imperial Palace). Along the way, he met the lovely Poppy Fields while she was in the chorus of Jubilee! (but if you ask me it might as well have been a strip club, she was wearing practically nothing, I’m just saying) and married her which promptly killed his mother.